Laptop Buying
- Thread starter Mike
- Start date
I've had an Acer for 18-ish months, and it gets a lot of use every day and sometimes quite intensively (think 3DsMax, After Effects, Photoshop etc) and I've not had a SINGLE problem with it. My housemate also has an Acer that's around three years old, and again, he's not had a single problem with it and he used to game on it quite a lot.Thekingin64 said:
I really don't get this unreliability issue that seems to always get brought up about Acers. I think if you know how to use a computer and how to keep it running efficiently, then you REALLY shouldn't have any problems.
But hey, everyone's experiences are different.
I went for the Asus in the end.
It's going pretty smoothly so far, but the only really annoying thing about it is how the right arrow key is where the 0 key should be, and the up key is where the shift key should be... Apart from that though, it definitely feels like an improvement from my old Compaq!
It's going pretty smoothly so far, but the only really annoying thing about it is how the right arrow key is where the 0 key should be, and the up key is where the shift key should be... Apart from that though, it definitely feels like an improvement from my old Compaq!
Bit late in on this, but general advice:
Never buy anything that has the name "Packard" in it. Packard Bell only produce for PC World because nobody else will sell their ****. Hewlett Packard are very shoddy in most departments.
Other than that, generally, the only difference between a £300 laptop and £500 laptop is £200. I guess if you want to game or something, but generally it'll make very little difference as long as you stay away from the Celeron cut back crap CPUs.
Laptops only ever start to show how well or badly made they are after several months. I tend to find that as they hit 18 months to 2 years they show their faults. Sometimes brilliant laptops from the off develop hideous faults after this time (we had a run of Dells that were excellent, but just before their second birthdays, the drives started to fail on every single one. Most we'd had to replace the batteries on too, so we then had to invest in new drives.
We had a bunch of Toshibas as well, all brilliant, but within two years the keys all started snapping off. Until that point, they were excellent.
Generally when buying technology like this (that has an unknown working life (reviews can't help because they only ever test the things over a short period and don't spend 12 months unplugging them and lugging them around)) it's best to get a slightly older, 'end of life' model.
So getting a laptop from last years £500-£700 range for cheap at £300-£400 is a good idea. One reason it's good is that you can read reviews and check out issues people have been having with the machine/manufacturer over the months since it was released. It's rare you will ever need the very latest technology, so buying what was an expensive laptop for cheap is better than buying either a cheap laptop or an expensive laptop.
I understand why people buy laptops, but they're the most god-awful things in the world. Reliability, build quality and life-span are all seemingly completely random. Nightmare things and my most hated question is "which laptop should I buy?"
If they're rich, I always say "Mac", if they're not, I give them the advice above but won't recommend any particular make or model (beyond avoiding anything with Packard in the name, oh, and Advent).
Never buy anything that has the name "Packard" in it. Packard Bell only produce for PC World because nobody else will sell their ****. Hewlett Packard are very shoddy in most departments.
Other than that, generally, the only difference between a £300 laptop and £500 laptop is £200. I guess if you want to game or something, but generally it'll make very little difference as long as you stay away from the Celeron cut back crap CPUs.
Laptops only ever start to show how well or badly made they are after several months. I tend to find that as they hit 18 months to 2 years they show their faults. Sometimes brilliant laptops from the off develop hideous faults after this time (we had a run of Dells that were excellent, but just before their second birthdays, the drives started to fail on every single one. Most we'd had to replace the batteries on too, so we then had to invest in new drives.
We had a bunch of Toshibas as well, all brilliant, but within two years the keys all started snapping off. Until that point, they were excellent.
Generally when buying technology like this (that has an unknown working life (reviews can't help because they only ever test the things over a short period and don't spend 12 months unplugging them and lugging them around)) it's best to get a slightly older, 'end of life' model.
So getting a laptop from last years £500-£700 range for cheap at £300-£400 is a good idea. One reason it's good is that you can read reviews and check out issues people have been having with the machine/manufacturer over the months since it was released. It's rare you will ever need the very latest technology, so buying what was an expensive laptop for cheap is better than buying either a cheap laptop or an expensive laptop.
I understand why people buy laptops, but they're the most god-awful things in the world. Reliability, build quality and life-span are all seemingly completely random. Nightmare things and my most hated question is "which laptop should I buy?"
If they're rich, I always say "Mac", if they're not, I give them the advice above but won't recommend any particular make or model (beyond avoiding anything with Packard in the name, oh, and Advent).
kimahri
CF Legend
You didn't listen to me?
HOW DARE YOU IGNORE MY OPINION! Watch as I proceed to call you things like idiot, stupid and, wait for it, dumb!!
Furie's advice is actually pretty good. So all I can do is just parrot what he said. Laptops are pretty bad overall. I guess that's just what you get trying to mush everything into a tiny space.
HOW DARE YOU IGNORE MY OPINION! Watch as I proceed to call you things like idiot, stupid and, wait for it, dumb!!
Furie's advice is actually pretty good. So all I can do is just parrot what he said. Laptops are pretty bad overall. I guess that's just what you get trying to mush everything into a tiny space.
robbeal said:
I bought one for home back in September along with 7 for work. With old PC trade-ins and cash back they were about £150 ex. VAT. You just can't turn down a decently specced laptop for that much no matter what the make :lol:
Plus, they might be a batch of good ones* you just never know until you hit that 12 month mark. At under £200 for me, if I get 18 months to 2 years from it then I've got to be quids in.
*they're not. One was DOA, mine at work doesn't charge on odd days when it feels like it and the one home reboots if turn the power on/plug in the charger when the machine is operating. ~Also, the keyboards are all a bit wobbly.
The motherboard on my HP melted. Then it had ALL sorts of issues, the screen hinge broke, the hard drive FAILED and i had to get an external one, it only loaded up properly 1/10 boots, it was just awful. A shame because it was a beautiful thing and ran like a dream for the year it worked.
My current laptop is a Dell. That didn't work from the moment I bought it, no matter what you did, if you didn't load any programs or whatever you ran the thing would completely lock-up 5 minutes after booting up, but only if it was plugged into the AC adapter.. The battery life is pretty shocking on it. It had major major issues with Vista (but didn't everyone?), it's finally settled down with Windows 7 and Dell themselves dialing into my laptop to figure it out.
Not even sure what to get when this gives up the ghost, or even before then I want a better spec Laptop that can play games.
My current laptop is a Dell. That didn't work from the moment I bought it, no matter what you did, if you didn't load any programs or whatever you ran the thing would completely lock-up 5 minutes after booting up, but only if it was plugged into the AC adapter.. The battery life is pretty shocking on it. It had major major issues with Vista (but didn't everyone?), it's finally settled down with Windows 7 and Dell themselves dialing into my laptop to figure it out.
Not even sure what to get when this gives up the ghost, or even before then I want a better spec Laptop that can play games.